Arsenal’s deal for Mesut Ozil may have attracted a fair amount of attention and a large quantity of column inches, but I can’t shake the feeling that it papers over the cracks some what. Is the Gunner’s squad really strong enough to compete for silverware?
Don’t get me wrong, Arsenal’s midfield is arguably the strongest in the Premier League. In terms of creativity, it is more or less unparalleled. Adding Mesut Ozil to the squad will elevate the Gunners’ midfield to an entirely new level. It’s going to be fascinating to watch.
But Arsenal’s squad lacks balance. For a start, Olivier Giroud is the club’s only real out-and-out striker. Yaya Sanogo is out with a long-term injury. Nicklas Bendtner is unreliable and unfit. Chuba Akpom is too inexperienced to be trusted this season. Giroud has started the season well, but should he pick up an injury, or go through a bad patch of form, Arsenal could be in trouble.
The Gunners also lack options at the back. It’s telling how shaky the Gunners looked without Per Mertesacker marshaling the back-four during the Sunderland game. Arsenal weren’t put under a lot of pressure, but Bacary Sagna looked easily bullied and Laurent Koscielny was as rash as ever. We’re early into the season, but the French centre-back has already given away two penalties. On his day, Koscielny can be fantastic, but he can also be a liability.
Mertesacker on the other hand, is slow and can easily be beaten for pace. Carl Jenkinson could come good, but he’s constantly found out of position and can be a little naive at times. Finally, there’s Kieran Gibbs, who has improved immensely, but is prone to mistakes of his own. Then there’s Thomas Vermaelen, who wasn’t exactly in the best of form before his long-term injury lay-off. It would be foolish to assume that he’s the answer to Arsenal’s defensive issues.
Arsene Wenger is clearly aware of the issues with his defense. Why else would he have gone in for Atletico Madrid defender, Juanfran?
The right-back, who has made 94 appearances for Madrid, recently told the Press the following: “It is true that I had an offer from Arsenal that any player would have liked to have accepted. But I am very happy here. For me, as everyone knows, there is no better club than Atletico.” (Source: The Mirror)
It’s a long season and I can’t help but feel that Arsene Wenger will regret his decision not to sign another defender. He’s clearly aware of the issue, so it’s worth asking the question: why didn’t he fight harder to bring somebody in?
I hope Arsenal’s current squad is enough to lead them to success, but I certainly won’t be holding my breath.
What’s your take? Will Arsenal regret not signing another defender?
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Very true. We should buy a dozen of centre backs and full backs.
Thomas Vermealen is a world class centre back. The problem with many fans, I doubt they blame people who tries to save some body else’ s mistake in the last minute. Many critcised errors TV committed was the out come of sily mistakes by his teammates in the first stance.
Then we got Monreal, whi to me is better than Gibbs. In GIBBS, MONREAL,TV, KOZ we have strongth. The real concern is RB position. As koz proved not bad at that position we are JUST SAFE with Miguel & Per as stand by….
Wtf are you talking about we don’t have enough cover for right back. Yeah that’s what the team needs more than any thing. . . Another right back. Its not enough to have enough to just have two players who play there as their main position. Its okay on the left with gibbs and monreal but not on the right. Much more likely to be injured on the right side of the pitch see. .
u are very wrong, vnod. This guy has totally defined our back four except he dint mention dat sagna is now old and weak, and jekinson is our best right back for now, he has had enough assist when he goes forward nd he’s ok defensively. The best of our defenders are koscielny,gibbs,jekinson. Flamini has bin brilliant
Up front we have Poldolski and Walcott who can both play as out and out strikers if needed and dare I say it both Ramsey and corzola are both deadly in front of goal and could handle the strikers position aswell.
Our problem is the right back area as jenkinson is still learning and sagna gets worse every year although he is good as central defender.
When we defend we are solid but the real problem is we spend so much time attacking that we are vulnerable to the counter attack when our right and left backs are caught out of position and either fail or struggle to get back.